The Rice Queen Diaries

April 30, 2005

The Rice Queen Diaries(Arsenal Pulp Press, 2005)

Available at quality book stores.

In this moving autobiography, Daniel Gawthrop writes about the politics and pleasures of being a self-identified “rice queen”: a gay man who is attracted to Asians. Navigating through the jungles of western cities like London and Vancouver, the humid streets of Bangkok and Saigon, and the dimly lit recesses of personal memory, Gawthrop explores the multicultural minefields of sexuality and culture as he articulates the manners and contradictions of his desires, and where they take him.

Evoking the themes of Edward Said’s Orientalism, The Rice Queen Diaries is as much an intimate statement about culture and otherness as it is about gay desire. Traversing three continents, these diaries are a personal reckoning, a bold coming to terms with the nuances of love and sexuality that resonate in all of us.

I am a rice queen at 42 years of age. I sometimes wonder my motivation and doubt altruism in the name of love. Yet, I swoon so easily for the submissive and androgynous of Asian extraction.

I clicked with a number of points you made. Sometimes I shuttered – maybe in guilt.

I am not sure if anyone can say that reasons for loving someone are wrong. But, is there a way to find better balance for myself? I am not turning to you as a shrink here. I just think maybe you get the point so well.

It might be nice to meet up and chat on the topic. I don’t mean to be creepy or anything. Just I think you have thought about this more seriously than most, and we might have a lot to discuss there. Just throwing that out. “No” is fine. Life is short…

I am an architect-turned-innkeeper living in my home state of Maine now, after a 7-year stint in Hawaii and Hong Kong.

Anyway, I am always interested in people who can offer a dialogue on what’s important, and you came into my radar. Just say “hi” if that’s comfortable. Or, let’s get together for lunch and talk at length.